Legacy of the Sith’s first new Operation, called the R-4 Anomaly, is changing in two ways. First, the Operation will only have an 8-man version, while previous Operations had both 8 and 16-man varieties. Second, the R-4 Anomaly won’t be released concurrently with Legacy of the Sith, and will instead come a few weeks later in January 2022.
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SWTOR’s reasoning for making these changes are simple–the majority of groups that historically try Operations since the game launched 10 years ago have done the 8-man versions, rather than the 16-man ones. As for delaying the raid’s launch, Star Wars: The Old Republic wants to let players finish the story and begin gearing up for the Operation at a leisurely pace, so as not to force hardcore content clearers to rush gearing up and blasting into the raid.
These changes to Operations in Star Wars: The Old Republic bring the game in line with other top MMORPGs on the market today. Final Fantasy 14’s most difficult raid content is 8-man as well, with its 24-man raids being relatively casual. World of Warcraft’s endgame raids come in 10-man and 25-man varieties. While WoW had 40-man raids during Vanilla, it abandoned that formula 15 years ago. Both FF14 and WoW stagger raiding content as well, unlocking raids 2 to 4 weeks after an expansion or patch’s launch.
The Operation changes in SWOTR will ultimately be a good thing. While The Old Republic still has about 200,000 players, the population is comparatively small enough that focusing on smaller groups is a wise idea, especially since most players already do so. Staggering the raid is also a good plan, as it gives players the chance to experience the excellent storytelling The Old Republic is known for without feeling rushed, and for players to get used to the new gearing system in Legacy of the Sith and get their hands on legendary equipment.
Some longtime fans of Star Wars: The Old Republic won’t be releasing any more 16-man Operations in the future. These players fear the lack of these larger-scale Operations will make it harder to find a group, and will make the gap between elite raiders and casual players of Star Wars: The Old Republic even larger. Players will have to see what kind of precedent the R-4 Anomaly sets for SWTOR when its Story and Veteran modes release in January, or when the Master mode releases some time after that.
Star Wars: The Old Republic is available for PC. Legacy of the Sith is slated to launch sometime in December.
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Source: Star Wars: The Old Republic
